Size of document too high

[NICOLAS5E62]

Hi, I am trying to reduce the size of my InDesign document which is 189MB, 96 pages and an average of 3 pictures per page. All the photos are linked, not embedded. Is there a way for me to reduce the size? When I export it as a PDF it ends up being 109MB which is still too heavy to be able to download it easily on my website. I tried to use pdf compressor online to reduce it to 30 MB but the pictures end up being blurry. Thanks for your help! 

[BobLevine]

First off, the size of the INDD file and the PDF have nothing to do with each other. 

If you want to shrink up the INDD perform a save as and just save it over itself. This will delete a bunch of stuff that keeps getting added to the file with each save.

As for the PDF, you get what you get. You can't have a small file and high quality; it just doesn't work that way. You can experiment with downsampling numbers to see if you can find a happy medium but there's a point where you're going to destroy the quality for the sake of file size.

[NICOLAS5E62]

Thanks for your help! I did what you suggested (save it over itself) and yes it went down to 134MB. Still trying to see if there is anything else I can do to reduce the size. 

[leo.r]

In addition to what Bob said, can you post some screenshots of how your average pages look like in InDesign? If you have 96 pages full of hi-res images of large dimensions then yes you can end up with a heavy-sized PDF.

In your case, it's 109 MB / 96 pages = 1.13 MB per PDF page. Reasonably sized PDF.

[NICOLAS5E62]

Here is a screenshot of how the average page looks like. Thanks! 

[leo.r]

Here is a screenshot of how the average page looks like. Thanks! 

By @NICOLAS5E62

Yes this confirms that everything is basically normal. Like I mentioned, if you export to PDF just one such page it will result in a ~1.13 MB PDF. Which is totally reasonable and expected. It's just if you have 96 of such pages the PDF size will multiply accordingly.

[rob day]

Hi @NICOLAS5E62 , AcrobatPro lets you audit  and optimize space usage. You might check if there is any unusual overhead usage, which can be caused by excessive metadata. In AcrobatPro choose Optimize PDF>Advanced Optimization>Audit space usage and check Document Overhead:

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@NICOLAS5E62 

You will either have quality = high resolution - or small size = low resolution - you can't have both.